Thinking of a new Laptop, what do you all think?

@DavidW7ncus, yes it is an HP Laptop

I do believe it is just regular Windows 8, very few laptops will ship with pro, so I have to either buy windows 7, or use a key that hasn't been activated yet to get to windows 7, between the hardware manufacturer's, and windows update, all drivers are accounted for with Windows 7, so no issues with drivers and downgrading. We did a gaming test run on this machine just to see how it compared to my current one...with GW2.

My machine on min settings and sub-rendering on, I get about 15-17 average FPS

On the HP I am going to buy, the game on max settings and Vsync off along with sub-rendering off, gave me an average of 70 FPS.

My laptop heats up to 95 degrees Celsius, the new one only got up to 52 degrees Celsius, this is with min settings on mine, and max settings on the other one.

I now know I will be buying this, but still undecided if I want to keep win8 or downgrade to win7, I do have an unused win7 key I can use for the downgrade.

Lady Fitzgerald said:

DavidW7ncus said:

I'm interested in the answer to your question.

I just posted (post #44) in Windows 8: Ready, set, preorder asking about downgrading.

Here is a thread i found that you should read.
HP urges consumer customers not to downgrade new PCs to Windows 7 - Computerworld

In your post/specs I don't see what version of Win8 you get, so maybe you have to buy a Win 7 license to downgrade???

I'm guessing this an HP laptop based on this in the specs you posted:
Webcam: HP TrueVision HD

And yet another reason to never buy HP products. HP has been notorious for not upgrading drivers on older equipment when a new OS comes out but now they are doing it in the other direction? Yeesh!

HP doesn't just not update their drivers when a new OS comes out, they stop a few weeks after that specific model originally ships. I am going to give them one last try before I say screw HP and switch to the "Dude your getting a Dell".

My FPS and heat was with both machines with Windows 7.

As for drivers, HP shouldn't be on the hook for removable 3rd party components. While HP should be out there lobbying with component makers to provide updates to drivers for their hardware, they better have their act together on things like the BIOS. Now if you're talking about an HP peripheral... I tend to avoid those. They used to make the best printers, and now they just make "pretty good" ones. Plenty of worthwhile competition from Canon and Epson.


But you know, having read about what has happened with the internal architecture of Windows 8, it's understandable about providing only minimal support if someone downgrades to Windows 7. This isn't like Vista-to->Seven. Seven-to->Eight is much more significant. In any case, with what people have discovered about running Eight with a Seven like customization makes it compelling to stick with Eight.

I have only had one driver problem with Windows 7 and it wasn't Windows 7 fault.
Windows 7 and Nvidia recommended the same driver for the card but because it was a MSI O/C from the factory it didn't like the new driver. I'm presuming that Windows 7 recommended the new driver because Nvidia recommended it.

Adding and keeping all that trash that comes with a store bought computer is a cash cow that manufactures don't want to loose. They will try to make it more difficult to use your computer when removed if they can. Microsoft wants to sell lots of Windows 8 and HP wants to sell lots of touch screen computers; they will play ball with each other.